


Christmas in New Trollmarket

by rockymountainvixen



Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon), Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Background BLARRRGHY/Trolldads, Background Stricklake, Christmas Fluff, Family, Family Fluff, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Holidays, Multi, Secret Santa, Ships are present but not the focus, Team as Family, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, background jlaire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 20:04:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17148269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockymountainvixen/pseuds/rockymountainvixen
Summary: Jim's friends and family pay him a visit in New Trollmarket to celebrate the holidays, but with all the changes in the past few months can Jim still have a merry Christmas?Spoiler alert: Yes he can.Secret Santa gift for mintharpy





	1. The Twenty Third

**Author's Note:**

> Secret Santa gift for mintharpy. I had fun with the idea of a feel-good, family Christmas celebration and ran with it, Hope you enjoy.

Jim deactivated his armor and flopped back onto his bed, completely exhausted. It had taken months to make their way to the new Hearthstone, and they had just barely been able to get New Trollmarket established before winter started. Even now there was still more than enough work to do; Jim hadn’t even bothered to wash off the goblin goop from the latest nest he had to exterminate. 

He rolled over onto his side and shut his eyes. Worst of all construction of the Gyre station was delayed, the soonest it would be complete would be next Spring. Meaning it would be at least that long until he could visit Arcadia. It wasn’t as if he was lonely, Claire and Blinky were always there to lend a hand or just be there for him, but Jim would have been lying if he said that he didn’t miss the people they’d left behind. Jim took a deep breath and tried to relax, he had been trying really hard to not be bitter about it, but it was the first Christmas as a troll and away from Arcadia; it hurt that he couldn’t be with his whole family. Now all he wanted was to get some rest and not have to think about how lonely the next two days were going to be. 

“Master Jim!” 

Jim groaned and turned away from the door “Blinky….can this wait, I literally just got finished clearing out goblins from the eastern cavern,”

Blinky grinned, either not noticing Jim’s exhaustion or not caring “I’m afraid not, a situation has arisen that requires the immediate attention of the Trollhunter, once this business is concluded, then you may rest,”

Jim forced himself to get out of bed and follow Blinky out of the room. He’d learned a long time ago that when the someone needed the Trollhunter’s help, they wouldn’t give him any peace until he gave it. Feeling a headache coming on, he rubbed the base of his horns, hopefully this wouldn’t take to long. 

Blinky led him to his newly re-established library “Right this way,”

Jim bit back a groan before following him inside, he just had to take care of whatever this was then he could go back to bed, go to sleep, and forget all about how depressing Christmas was going to be without-

“Jim!”

“Jimbo!”

“JIM!”

Stunned, Jim looked around the library, and saw not only Claire holding Enrique while talking to her parents, but also Toby, Nana, AAARRRGGHH, Strickler, and his mom. Who were all somehow here in New Trollmarket.

He froze in shock “Wha- what are you all doing here, I didn’t think the Gyre station was open!?”

Toby grinned at him “Easy, we rented a U-Haul and drove cross country, no way we were going to miss the first Christmas of New Trollmarket!”

Jim still couldn’t believe it “but… why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

His mom approached him “We wanted to, but with all the snow we weren’t sure we would get here on time,” she took his hands in her own “and I didn’t want to get your hopes up only to let you down,”

Jim’s tense posture softened, he was going to spend Christmas with his whole family after all “It’s ok Mom,” he said while wrapping his arms around her in a hug that she just as readily returned “I’m just glad that you’re here now,”

“Now that we’ve got the introductions out of the way, we can move on to the main event,” Toby reached into his backpack and pulled out a small black box “Presents!”

Jim chuckled, he had missed having Toby around, just as much as his mom “Tobes, Christmas is in two days, I think it can wait,”

Toby ignored him and shoved the box in his hands “Nope, this one you’re opening now!”

Curious, Jim opened it, inside was an assortment of tiny gems of various shape and color “Are these…”

“VENDEL’S STONES!” AAARRRGGHH shouted excitedly.

“Yeah dude! We found them on one of our salvage runs through Old Trollmarket!”

Jim picked up one of the stones, spherical and dark green, and held it up to examine it “Thanks guys, I can’t wait to use the ‘Strength of One Thousand’ again,” he said jokingly. 

Now Strickler came forward, somehow looking smug and delighted at the same time “While I’m sure you will,” he pulled out a jagged crystal the color of butter “I would recommend that you start with this one instead,”

Jim plucked the offered crystal from Strickler’s hand. It was unique sure, but so were the rest of the stones, and this particular stone wasn’t so unique as to stand out from the crowd. 

Glancing up from the stone, Jim noticed for the first time how alert and eager his visiting relatives were. Both emotions were to be expected around the holidays, but not to this extent. It felt like they were all in on a secret that they couldn’t wait to share.

“What… ” he asked hesitantly “Does this one do?”

“It gives immunity to sunlight!” Toby shouted, bursting with anticipation.

Jim couldn’t believe it “Really?”

“DOUBLE CHECKED,” 

It was almost too good to be true “So, with this thing,” he held out the stone in question “I can walk around during the day and not turn to stone!”

“I believe that’s what we said, young Atlas,” Strickler said, bemused at Jim’s incredulity. 

Giddy laughter bubbled out of him “So this means, now I can-” he struggled to form complete sentences “This is amazing! Thank you guys so much,”

Toby smiled and came forward to get his turn at a hug “Anytime Jim, merry Christmas,”

After Jim and Toby finished hugging and pulled away, Claire and her parents stepped forward to join the larger group. Claire cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention 

“So Jim, since there’s still two days until Christmas, and you have the sunlight stone now, we were thinking of going into town tomorrow to get holiday supplies, you want to come with?”

As if they even needed to ask “Definitely! We can get decorations, and cookie ingredients, and a tree, and-”

“Slow down Master Jim,” Blinky gently laid two of his four hands on Jim’s shoulders “We are still setting the foundations of New Trollmarket’s architecture, we can barely support our population, let alone host a festival,”

Jim deflated, of course, just because it was the holidays didn’t mean they could all throw off their responsibilities to celebrate. He had to be practical about this. 

Blinky hesitated upon seeing Jim’s disheartened state “However,” he said slowly “We should be able to manage a… small celebration, confined to my library,”

Jim brightened “Really!”

“Quite certainly,” 

Jim could barely contain his joy, this was incredible. Less than an hour ago he thought that he was going to be spending Christmas clearing out gnome nests and foraging for food. Now his whole family was here and they were going to celebrate! The first Christmas of New Trollmarket was going to be spectacular.

* 

“You ready Jim?” Claire asked.

The all stood at the entrance to New Trollmarket underneath a dilapidated train bridge in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Jim stood still shadowed by the bridge; amulet with sunlight stone in one hand and the glamor mask in the other.  
“As I’ll ever be,” 

He summoned the armor, the sunlight stone gave it a yellow sheen. Then, Jim slowly raised the mask and placed it on his face, magic flashing around him. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the sun. 

No burning, no sun-staining, no searing pain, only brightness and the barest hint of warmth.

“So, how do I look?”

Claire smiled at him “You look great,”

“Yeah, classic Jimbo makes a comeback,” 

“You kids ready to go?” Mrs Nuñez called from the rental van where the rest of the humans were already waiting.

“Coming,” Jim called back.

He had missed this so much, just being able to stand in the sun with Toby and Claire; pretend for a bit that he was a regular teenager again.

The trio hopped in the van and buckled in, allowing Mrs. Nuñez to start the car and head into town. New Trollmarket’s entrance was way out in the Pine Barrens, but they had discovered a decent sized town a little less than an hour away. 

As they pulled up to the grocery store, Jim could see it was completely packed with customers. That was to be expected, Christmas was in two days after all. Jim was practically bouncing in his seat with excitement. He was going shopping at a grocery store, in broad daylight, where everyone could see him. No skulking in the shadows, ducking and hiding any time some bystander came close to spotting him. No counting down the hours to sunrise, knowing his life depended on it. Jim hadn’t felt this free in a long time. 

Mrs. Nuñez had barely put the car into park when Jim hopped out and ran into the store. Ignoring the crowd, he surveyed the various displays; making a note of the locations of all the ingredients for his favorite holiday recipes. In the back of his mind Jim knew that a lot of them wouldn't taste the same now that he was a troll, but that’s what changing recipes was for. 

“Having fun kiddo?” Barbara asked as the rest of the group quickly caught up with him.

He smiled back at her “You know it,”

The Nuñezes and the Domzalskis split off to do their own shopping with his mom and Strickler staying to tail Jim. Jim was so elated by this outing that even his mom and Strickler making the occasional goo-goo eyes at each other couldn’t dampen his mood.

Between the crowds and the wide assortment of items they were getting, the shopping seemed to take forever. Jim didn’t mind, he loved every second of it. Soon enough, all their supplies were paid for, bagged, strapped to the roof of the van, and packed up in the trunk; then they were all heading back to New Trollmarket. 

It was late when they finally got back, with most of the humans electing to just make sure the purchases requiring refrigeration were put away before going to get some rest. It was understandable, they were all still sleep deprived from their cross-country drive. 

Jim was the last one still awake, going through their newly purchased Christmas supplies, too giddy to try to sleep. Feeling impish, he discreetly opened a tin of shortbread cookies and popped one into his mouth. 

Vile, repugnant taste spread across his tongue. Almost involuntarily, Jim spat the shortbread out, what happened, it was just a regular….cookie….

The cookie was normal, but Glamor mask and daylight stone aside, Jim was still a troll. He removed the Glamor mask and deactivated the amulet. Slowly, he looked around at all the holiday supplies they had purchased that day; seeing them in a whole new light.

Jim was a troll and the Trollhunter now, Christmas wasn’t going to be the same anymore. Sure he could wrap some presents and throw lights on a tree, but it wasn’t the same. The safe quiet holidays he spent in Arcadia with his mom and Toby were a thing of the past. The time before he had the responsibilities of Trollhunter seemed like a distant, pleasant dream, once he could never visit again.

Unspilled tears burned at the edge of his vision. The sunlight stone and the glamor mask were just skin-deep solutions. They couldn’t change the fact whatever celebration they cobbled together would only be a temporary diversion from his new life. Toby, his mom, and everyone else was going to go back to Arcadia and leave him here. All the changes of being a newly turned troll came back at him. Jim could never make a casual trip back home for the holidays, we wasn’t going to go back to school in January with everyone else his age, he couldn’t even eat a piece of shortbread. 

The holidays, his life, his future; they were never going to be the same again, and trying to pretend that they were left a bad taste in his mouth.


	2. Christmas Eve

Gone to explore new cave system, start without me.  
-Jim

The contents of the note were innocent enough, but they made Barbara’s gut churn with worry. She had woken up that morning to find Jim gone and the note in his place. More than anything Jim’s sudden shift in mood concerned her. Yesterday he had seemed so thrilled about celebrating with them and baking his favorite holiday treats and decorating the small Douglas Fir they had gotten. For Jim to do such a one-eighty was troubling.

Barbara looked up from the note and met Blinky’s worried eyes. Behind him everyone else was working on setting up the tree. In the interest of not spoiling the mood, Blinky had encouraged them all to carry on, while promising to retrieve Jim. This just left him and her with Strickler as support standing in the corner of the library, fretfully trying to determine what had upset Jim.

“I’ll go try and find him,” she finally said. 

“Please do,” Blinky replied “He has been pushing himself quite hard as of late, I was becoming concerned with his mental state and I had hoped celebrating your solstice holiday would improve his mood,” he paused “For Jim to go from eager to withdrawn so quickly is concerning,”

Strickler spoke up “I’ll go with you,” 

Barbara let out a small sigh of relief. She’d come a long ways in understanding the new world Jim found himself in, but she was still grateful for the support of another human/troll hybrid.

She nodded at Blinky and then set off with Strickler towards the recently excavated cave system that Jim said he’d be in.

They spent twenty minutes exploring the rough-hewn caverns in silence, only looking up to ensure that the other was still there. After almost half and hour Strickler gently placed a hand on her should her and pointed “Over there,”

Barbara turned in the direction he indicated, it was a smaller offshoot tunnel, toward the end she could see Jim’s outline facing away from her. 

“Jim….”

“You should be the one to talk to him,” Strickler continued “I’ll be here if you need me,”

Barbara murmured a thank you to him before setting off to approach Jim. When she got close enough she called out to him.

“Jim,”

Startled, but not frightened, he turned to look at her. A flicker of fear crossed his face, quick enough that she almost missed it, before he grinned like he didn’t have a care in the world. 

She knew that smile, she had seen it on his face for months. Back before he told her about being the Trollhunter, when his world was falling apart and he was desperately trying to keep her in the dark about how much he was struggling. Barbara had hoped she would never have to see that smile on his face again.

“Jim, what are you doing here? I thought you were excited about spending Christmas with everyone?”

“Oh, I am,” he replied, his tone almost believably nonchalant “I just thought that I should map out the new caves before I get started with the holiday stuff,” 

Barbara wasn’t going to have any of it, not today “Jim. Stop it. I know something’s wrong, just please tell me what it is so I can help,”

Jim’s shoulders slumped in defeat “It’s just that….” he looked down at the cave floor, unable to meet her eyes “I’m a troll now,”

“And?”

“And that means everything is different….the sunlight stone and the glamor mask are just skin deep, I’m never going to be able to live a human life, and trying to celebrate Christmas just reminded me of that,”

His words hit Barbara like a knife to the heart, even after all these months Jim was still struggling with his transformation. Honestly she was still mourning all that Jim had given up, both now and in the future, but her feelings weren’t what mattered right now.

Barbara walked up to Jim and placed her hands on his shoulders “You’re right, a lot of things are never going to be the same, but they can also be new and different and fun. Just because you’re a troll now doesn’t mean you still can’t enjoy things like holidays,” 

He raised his head to look her in the eye.

“Why don’t we head back to the library, I promise that we can come up with fun, new Troll-based traditions to celebrate Christmas with, what do you say?”

Jim gave her a weak smile “Ok mom,”

Barbara bit her tongue, she could see it all over his face, Jim was still miserable. The only difference was that now he was going to plaster on a happy face so he wouldn’t feel like he was letting everyone down. Well then she was just going to have to try harder. One way or another, Barbara was going to make sure her son had a happy Christmas. 

The two of them met up with Strickler and walked back to Blinky’s library in silence. Meanwhile, Barbara was wracking her mind to come up with a way to genuinely cheer Jim up. 

They could bake troll-compatible cookies, but that would just remind him that he couldn’t eat regular cookies. They could make make new ornaments, but he could break them without even trying. With his enhanced strength, weaving evergreen wreaths would be easy, but that would still remind him of how different he was now. Now matter how hard Barbara tried, she couldn’t come up with an idea for a new tradition that wouldn’t remind Jim of a previous holiday tradition that he couldn’t do any more.

By the time they reached the library Barbara was desperately hoping that while they were gone Blinky had come up with an idea to cheer Jim up. She stepped into the library only to freeze in shock, actions mirrored shortly after by Jim and Strickler.

What half an hour ago had been a small, tidy room in the process of being decorated now resembled a Christmas-themed warzone. Strings of lights had been ripped down and thrown haphazardly across the room. The evergreen boughs and wreaths decorating the walls had either been reduced to charred husks or were still in the process of burning. There wasn’t a single square foot of the floor that didn’t have some amount of broken glass or goblin goo on it. To top it all off, the tree was lying in its side, covered with the shattered remains of its ornaments, and soaked with smashed goblins.

Upon the trio’s entry everyone in the room paused, having been caught in a hasty attempt to remove all evidence of whatever disaster had passed through. Blinky stood in the center of the chaos, looking sheepish.

“Apologies, but we had difficulty with some….uninvited guests, could you possibly return in half an hour?” 

While initially too stunned to notice anything but the chaos of the room, out of the corner of her eye, Barbara saw Jim’s shoulders start to heave. 

She felt her heart clench, they’d screwed it all up. Jim was miserable, the decorations were ruined and now he was crying--

Hearty laughter burst out of Jim as he doubled over, clutching his stomach. They all stood in stupefied silence while Jim roared with laughter.

Of all the responses Barbara expected out of him, this wasn’t one of them “Jim….are you ok?”

Jim fought to get his answer out while still shaking with laughter “It’s just that-- like, you remember-- that one year, with the turkey?”

In an instant she knew what he was talking about. Back when he was in elementary school, one year she had somehow caused the turkey she had been cooking for their Christmas dinner to explode in the oven. Charred turkey bits had coated every inch of the kitchen, even the ceiling.

Barbara looked back over the combination of goblin remains and destroyed Christmas decorations. Jim was right, replace turkey with goblin, and the library resembled a scene right out of their family’s holiday scrapbook. 

Unable to help herself, Barbara burst into hearty laughter of her own. 

While the two of them shook with uncontrolled mirth, everyone else in the room stared at them with confusion and concern. 

Blinky approached them cautiously “Are you not….upset at the state of the festivities?”

“No, I mean yes, I mean--” Jim took a deep breath to steady himself “I’m sorry that all of your hard work was ruined, but I don’t mind how it looks in here,” 

Claire stepped forward “Are you sure? You’ve been so down lately,”

Jim gingerly picked up a mostly intact ornament “I’m sure. It’s been tough, being the Trollhunter and having everything change,” he propped up the tree and placed the ornament on one of its topmost branches “But as long as you guys are here it’s still going to be a merry Christmas,”

“Are you sure?” Toby asked “Because we can go get another tree, I’m sure there are a few left,”

Jim smiled at his friends “We can go ahead and replace the tree with an upside down broom, just as long as you’re all here,”

Barbara looked over at Jim and made eye contact, he smiled again at her, a real genuine smile. It didn’t matter if the decorations were perfect, even when he was human that hadn’t been what was really important. Whether human, troll, or space alien, as long as they were together, that was what really mattered.

“Jim, how about we bake some gingerbread together,” she suggested “Between you and me I think we can make cookies for trolls and humans,”

“That sounds great mom, I already have some ideas for how to do that,”

Blinky clasped both sets of hands together “Splendid! While you are off preparing celebratory treats, AAARRRGGHH and myself shall do our best to repair and redecorate, does everyone else have a task to complete?”

“I still need to make my world famous fruitcake,” Nana piped up.

“And we need to get started on the tamales,” Ophelia said with Javier beside her, nodding in agreement. 

“Toby and I can be on present wrapping detail,” Claire added.

“Yeah, top secret, no peeking, even you wingman,”

“Strickler, do you mind helping us with the tamales?” Javier asked “We could really use another pair of hands,”

“I would be delighted,”

“Wonderful!” Blinky proclaimed “Let’s all get started,”

*

The group splintered off as everyone went to complete their self-assigned tasks. Jim and Barbara went over to the workshop that doubled as a kitchen. They set up their cookie making station at one end of the workbench with Nana occupying the other side. The Nuñezes and Strickler wasted no time in establishing a tamale assembly line in the corner of the room they had staked out.

Jim picked up a measuring spoon a gave it a casual twirl “Think you can keep up mom?”

Barbara brandished a wooden spoon at him “You’d better believe it,”

Soon they were both elbow deep in flour and spices. Between Barbara’s natural cooking skills and Jim’s knowledge of confectionaries, they were able to get two doughs going in no time. One geared toward humans, the other for trolls. 

Jim also sampled the other holiday foods being prepared. Tamales tasted very different than when he was human, but were still good. On the other hand, Nana’s fruitcake, which he had once joked with Toby about being able to serve the same structural function as a cinder block, was now the most heavenly combination of fruit, nuts, and honey he had ever tasted. 

Once the first batch of baking was done, Jim loaded up a tray of cookies and took it to the library. He was greeted by the site of Blinky and AAARRRGGHH putting the finishing touches on the second round of decorations along with Toby and Claire setting presents by the foot of the newly restored tree. 

It was impressive, while they had managed to salvage the tree, many of the decorations had to be quickly improvised from the limited supplies they had. Seeing the combination of human and trollish decorations gave Jim a deep sense of contentment. Both human and troll, just like him. Although he did hope the Dwarkstones weren’t active. 

Toby noticed him come in with the tray “Hey Jim, you all done with the Christmas baking,”

“Oh no,” Jim said while offering a species appropriate cookie to everyone in the room. The decorations looked great, things were really busting in the kitchen, and all his friends and family were here. He hadn’t felt this elated and energized in months “I’m just getting started,”


	3. Christmas Day

Human and troll sleep cycles were not at all similar, due to one species having a fatal reaction to sunlight and needing far less sleep in general. But on this particular morning, both species put in effort to wake up in their underground dwelling at the same time as the sun rose on the surface. 

Jim stretched and yawned. For simplicity’s sake, the human visitors’ sleeping area had been set up in rooms immediately adjacent to Blinky’s library. Due to Jim’s desire to help with holiday preparations late into the night, he had eventually fallen asleep on the library floor itself.

Jim blinked the sleep out of his eyes and waited for everyone else to wake up. 

Claire and her parents were the first group to walk in, with Barbara and Strickler following shortly behind them.

“Morning,” Jim greeted them “You guys sleep alright?”

“Uh huh,” Claire replied with a yawn “What’s for breakfast?”

Jim picked up a tray from one of the library’s workbenches “Cookies; red plate for humans, green plate for trolls,”

Claire walked up and plucked a cookie from the human plate “How’d you make the troll compatible cookies?”

“The two main differences are cooking time and the addition of large amounts of sand,” he said while popping one of the aforementioned cookies into his mouth, grinning at Claire’s nauseated expression. 

It was at that moment Toby ran into the library, with his Nana, Blinky, and AAARRRGGHH on his heels “Are you guys ready for presents!”

“Not before everyone’s had dessert for breakfast,” Claire said through a mouthful of cookie crumbs and frosting. Toby deflated, but only slightly. Ten minutes later, once everyone had a Christmas confection in one hand and a caffeinated beverage in the other, Toby made a beeline for the tree.

“Okay, now it’s present time,” he grabbed two packages “These ones first,” he handed the larger of the boxes to AAARRRGGHH “This one’s for you,”

AAARRRGGHH opened the package as delicately as he could manage. An elated look appeared on his face once he discovered the box’s contents; a Christmas stocking stuffed to the brim with used argyle socks. 

“SOCKS!”

AAARRRGGHH proceed to chow down with gusto. Wasting no time, Toby handed the next box to Jim. 

Curious Jim unwrapped it, revealing the last thing he ever would have expected. .

“A sweater?”

“I knitted it myself,” Nana piped up.

Jim smiled at her in gratitude while he pulled the troll-sized sweater on over his t shirt, making sure it didn’t snag on his horns “Thanks Mrs. Domzalski, I love it,”

Noticing Claire wink at him while pulling a familiar package out from under the tree, Jim turned to Toby “Now it’s your turn,”

Claire approached and handed Toby the box “Merry Christmas TP,”

Eagerly, Toby tore into the offered present “Let’s see; hammer, chisel, tweezers, and is this a crystal pendulum?”

“Actually Tobes, it’s a Troll-standard geology kit,”

“Really!?”

“You betcha,” Claire cut in “The pendulum crystals can be used for infrared, UV, radiation, and apparently the magic levels,”

“We made a written guide to what they all do, so don’t try to use the magic crystal as a geiger counter,”

“Awesomesauce!”

While the three of them were busy going over Toby’s new gear, AAARRRGGHH pulled a box comparable in size to a treasure chest from under the tree “FOR BLINKY,”

“Oh, for me? You shouldn’t have, but since you have already gone to such trouble, let’s see what we have here….” Blinky tore off the paper, revealing a large old-fashioned trunk

Barbara smiled at him “This one is from AAARRRGGHH, Strickler, and me,”

Even more curious now, Blinky lifted the trunk’s lid “How joyous! you have gifted me with tomes to expand my new library!”

“It’s a combination of human and Changeling literature that we thought you would enjoy,” Strickler explained.

“I recommend you start with this one,” Barbara pulled out a large, maroon colored book that had a very simplistic design. AAARRRGGHH looked noticeably bashful.

“Why this one in particular?”

“AAARRRGGHH wrote it himself,” Strickler said matter-of-factly “It’s an autobiography of sorts,”

“Truly?!”

“OTHERS HELPED,” AAARRRGGHH mumbled while sheepishly avoiding eye contact. 

Blinky clasped the book to his chest with all four limbs “I will treasure it for the rest of my days,”

Knowing that the adults in their group would be preoccupied with Blinky’s new books for the time being, Jim took the opportunity to pull a red and gold envelope off of the tree “This is for you Claire,”

Claire opened the envelope and squealed at the contents “Papa Skull tickets!”

“The concert’s next April, I thought that maybe we could go together?,”

She leaped up and threw her arms around his neck “Of course we can! Thank you thank you thank you!”

Breaking the hug Claire ran to the tree and pulled out a large gift bag “Now here’s your gift from me,”

Jim pulled out the tissue paper to reveal a professional looking leather case. He opened the case, exposing blades of different shapes and sizes lining either side; with each one tucked into an individual sleeve. 

“Chef’s knives!” 

“I figured that it was time chef Jim got a professional set,”

“Thank you, they’re perfect,”

Barbara picked up three boxes and handed them to Jim, Claire, and Toby “You guys should open these at the same time,” 

Together, they tore off the paper and opened the boxes, Jim pulled out a thick black book and noticed Toby and Claire with identical ones “Are these scrapbooks?”

“We thought that you kids would like something to keep all your memories of Arcadia in, so we all collaborated and made these,” Nana explained.

“Don’t worry,” Ophelia reassured them “We left out the embarrassing baby pictures,”

“Most of them,” Javier corrected.

Claire hugged her scrapbook “Thanks, these are great,”

Blinky met Jim and Claire’s eyes with four of his. Upon receiving nods of confirmation from both of them, he grabbed four boxes from under the tree and approached the rest of the group with them “We had planned to ship these to you as soon as we could contact a reputable postage service, but since you’re already here….”

He handed a box to Barbara, the Nuñez’s, Toby, and AAARRRGGHH, respectively. Jim and Claire shared exstatic grins, these particular gifts to their families were the ones that they were looking forward to giving the most. 

Toby finished opening his first “Is this a….mirror ball?” the others pulled out their identical reflective spheres with looks of varying confusion.

Strickler on the other hand, looked at the gifts with awe and reverence “Are those….”

“Scrying stones!” Blinky shouted, unable to contain his glee.

“Oh yeah,” Toby said “What are scrying stones?”

“They’re crystals enchanted so that anyone who owns one can use it to communicate to anyone else that owns a stone, regardless of distance,” Claire clarified.

“Yep,” Jim chipperly added “Now we can talk whenever we want,” During the journey to New Trollmarket communication had been spotty at the best of times. There was even a period of almost three weeks where they were completely out of contact. Jim and Claire had been talking about more stable forms of communication with Blinky for a while. This was the solution they had ultimately come up with. 

“Thank you so much,” Ophelia said while lovingly cradling her stone.

“They are also exceedingly rare,” Strickler added “It must have take a great deal of effort for you to acquire this many,”

Eyes brimming with tears, Barbara came over to Jim and embraced him “Now you can call twice a day,”

“I’ll do that, Merry Christmas Mom,”

Now that all the presents had been opened, everyone just sat back to eat their cookies and relax in the decorated library. Eventually, Toby stood up “I don’t know about you guys, but feel like going outside and enjoying the white Christmas,”

“Sounds great,” Claire got to her feet “How about it Jim? Want to pop the sunlight stone in your amulet so Toby and I can kick your butt in a snowball war?”

Jim smirked “Oh I’m not going to be the one getting my butt kicked,”

*

One change into winter clothes and sunlight-immunity armor later; Jim, Claire, and Toby were in the woods above New Trollmarket, wading through the copious amounts of snow on the ground.

“This is amazing!” Toby shouted into the snow-covered trees “We never got snow like this at home,”

“I know, it’s incredible!” Claire said while twirling in the falling flakes.

Jim smiled at his friends “Maybe this can be a new tradition,”

“Sounds good to me,” Toby said before flopping down on his back to make a snow angel. Jim chuckled at his friend’s antics, only to feel an icy ball of slush hit the back of his head.

Claire looked smugly at the two of them while casually rolling another snowball in her hands “I believe someone said something about kicking our butts in a snowball war?” 

Toby got to his feet, all business now “Oh you want a war? Well you got one,”

The next several hours were spent in nonstop, frosty combat. Whether it was setting up ambushes, constructing forts of varying size and architectural integrity, or no-holds-barred three way fights. Occasionally, some of the adults would show up to check on them. Mostly they stuck to the sidelines, prefering to watch the kids over joining in their winter warfare. A notable exception was when Barbara and Strickler checked up on them and Strickler decided to get his hands dirty. He did quite well at first, setting up a multitude of successful blitz attacks on each of them. Only when the trio were able to corner Strickler and dump a literal truckload of snow on him did he and Barbara decide it was time to go back down.

After sunset Blinky and AAARRRGGHH came up to join them, by that point they had moved on from snowball fights to sculpting snowmen. With the additional help they were able to make six snowmen, a vaguely AAARRRGGHH shaped snow mound, and a veritable army of snow-gnomes. By that time it had gotten completely dark, and Claire and Toby were starting to feel the cold, so they retired to Blinky’s library.

Nana met them at the entrance “You kids have fun?”

All three gave sounds of assent.

“Well here,” she placed a mug in each of their hands “Have some hot coco,”

The three of them took deep sips from each of their mugs, Jim smacked his lips at the delicious taste “How’d you manage to make a troll version of hot cocoa?”

“It was actually pretty easy,” Barbara chimed in “As it turns out hot chocolate is already pretty similar to existing troll drinks, I just had to swap a few ingredients,”

Claire sniffed Jim’s mug and made a face “Do we want to know what’s in this?”

“Most certainly not,” Blinky repiled.

They all settled in to comfortable silence, before Javier spoke up “So Barbara, I have to ask, an exploding turkey?”

She and Jim chucked at the memories his question brought up.

“It’s embarrassing really,” Barbara replied “One year I was trying to roast a turkey for Christmas dinner, and to this day I don’t know what I did, but he turkey exploded in the oven,”

Ophelia stared at her slack-jawed “Really!?”

“Yep,” Jim replied “It scared the hell out of me at the time,”

“We heard the explosion all the way over in our house,” Toby added.

Barbara chuckled “I was just glad that I didn’t need to call the fire department,”

At this the elder Nuñezs smirked at each other while Claire groaned “It’s funny you should mention that…”

“Dad, please, not this story,”

“Well now you have to tell us,” Jim said eagerly. 

Javier continued “One Christmas when Claire was a toddler, she somehow managed to stick her head through the stair banisters and get stuck,” 

Claire moaned in mortification.

“We ended up having to call the fire department to cut her free,” Ophelia concluded before turning to the Domzalskis “How about you, any stories?”

“Nothing that crazy,” Toby replied “Just the one year where the tree fell on me,”

“He thought that the elf on the shelf was trying to kill him,” Nana clarified.

Blinky stood up “If I may, while us trolls do not share many of your human holidays, during the festival celebrating the discovery of the Arcadian Hearthstone, I consumed so much glug that I became inebriated to the extent that I invited a colony of gnomes to share our living space,”

AAARRRGGHH nodded in confirmation “VENDEL NOT HAPPY,”

Jim watched as they all continued on sharing stories of disastrous holidays and drunken hijinks. His mom had been right. Christmas this year was nothing like it had been in the past, but it had been new and amazing. 

He cleared his throat “Well I for one am looking forward to all the mishaps Christmas at New Trollmarket is sure to have,”

His friends and family all laughed and agreed with him before the discussion once again turned to happy memories of the past and all their hopeful ideas for the future, as the first Christmas of New Trollmarket came to a peaceful end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of my holiday story. Hope this was close enough to mintharpy's wish for feel-good Jim content. Merry Christmas.


End file.
